I decided to add the beard, because when you see someone who hasn't shaved it just looks dirtier and scarier than someone with a clean face, so I went for a fuzzy, messy, dirty hair in 3ds Max using the standard hair modifier.Â After some tweaking I had exactly what I was looking for.Â Everything was going so well that I just couldn't resist doing a render and having some fun in Photoshop (Fig.07).

Fig. 07

During the "Photoshopping" was when I had this idea for the title; I was thinking of a fairy tale where the main character looks into a mirror and what he sees is a freaky monster instead of his reflection, like in "The Neverending Story" with Atreyu in front of the second door of the Southern Oracle (Fig.08).

Fig. 08

I did all the post production process and texturing in Photoshop.Â It took me a few hours of adding dirt and grain and painting some details like veins and a dead eye.Â I added the bloom and the depth of field by hand, and I enhanced some parts to help achieve the volume of the model (Fig.09).

Fig. 09

I was looking for an illustrative look, so I tried to emulate that the image was printed on paper and receiving light from the top.Â Finally, I did some Level corrections and I was happy... and exhausted.Â It took me more than six hours from the sculpting stage to the final image, but I enjoyed the whole process and I hope you enjoy the image, too!